April 20, 2014

Mavs forgot how to shoot the basketball

The Dallas Mavericks coach had his team chase the San Antonio Spurs off the 3-point line Sunday at the AT&T Center. He also had his players scrambling to cover any Spurs who thought they were open.

The plan worked. But there was one major problem.

The Mavs amazingly forgot how to shoot the basketball.

Dallas led 81-71 with 7:45 left in the game. They had momentum. They had swagger. They had confidence.

Final score: Spurs 90, Mavs 85.

After the Mavs clawed and scratched their way to that 10-point lead, they got outscored a whopping 19-4 the rest of the game. In that stretch the Mavs made just 1-of-13 shots and committed three turnovers.

It was as if the Mavs turned into a scene from the movie Space Jams, when all those great NBA players suddenly were robbed of their basketball powers and couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time.

"It's hard,'' said guard Devin Harris, who finished with 19 points and five assists. "We'll probably feel that way the rest of the day, but it's to the point where we have to try to learn from what we did and try to move on.

"Obviously we have a new game to worry about now.''

Game 2 of this best-of-seven series is back here on Wednesday at 7 p.m.